Watch: Unprecedented health scares highlight the mortality of the family | Royal Insight

New mood of openness over health of King Charles and the Princess of Wales has given an extraordinary glimpse into their private lives

The Royals have been hit by an unprecedented health crisis as three members of the family announced serious medical issues within less than a week of each other. 
Kensington Palace revealed that the Princess of Wales had undergone major abdominal surgery at the London Clinic before Buckingham Palace announced that the King required treatment for an enlarged prostate just 90 minutes later. 
The King, who turned 75 in November, is undergoing a corrective surgical procedure in hospital and has cancelled all his public engagements for several weeks in the meantime. 
The Princess of Wales, on the other hand, will be out of action until after Easter as she recovers from what is understood to be a planned abdominal surgery for a condition that we have been told is not cancerous.
The Duchess of York announced a few days later that she has recently been treated for an aggressive form of skin cancer, only six months after she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a single mastectomy and breast reconstruction surgery.
The series of health revelations from the family gives an extraordinary glimpse into their private lives at a level which has not been seen before with regards to health, which they previously would not have been so open about. 
It’s a testament to the modernity and transparency of the Carolean era that the monarch feels he wants to share details about a condition that has been largely stigmatised because of its potentially embarrassing symptoms.
But Kate and Charles’s unprecedented double health scare also raises immediate concerns about the Royal family’s day-to-day workload as it means that some of its most senior members will be out of action for some time.
The Princess of Wales is not expected to return to public duties until Easter and will undoubtedly leave an unexpected vacuum within the modern Royal family, who have gradually come to rely on her and her star power a great deal.
The fact that the Prince and his wife have carved a unique space in the royal landscape by focusing on their passion projects rather than attending more routine engagements means that during the Princess’s months-long absence no one else will be stepping in to fill her shoes in her beloved early years sector. 
The dual hospital admissions, as well as the Duchess of York’s second cancer diagnosis in a year, has brought the family’s mortality back into the spotlight after the death of Queen Elizabeth. Hopes of a smooth-sailing 2024 following the tumult of the previous few years may have already been dashed.
But if anything, the health scares are revealing to the public a more transparent, modern and family-facing monarchy under the new King.
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